There’s a lot to think about, but you don’t have to do it all at once. You can take it one step at a time and check back here whenever you’re ready to take the next step.
Step 1: Check how much you've saved
It’s easy to find out how much you’ve got in your pension savings with us.
Simply log on to your online account and look at your fund value summary.
If you’ve got pension savings with other employers or personal pensions, you should get a statement each year showing:
- the value of your current savings, and
- how much your pension could be at your chosen retirement age.
If you think you’ve got an old pension but have lost the details, you can use the government’s Pension Tracing service to find it.
You can use the government’s State Pension forecast service to get an estimate of your State Pension.
You can use the Money Advice Service’s pension calculator to help you add it all together.
Step 2: Check how much you’ll need
To get an idea of how much you’ll need to save for your retirement, have a look at the Retirement Living Standards developed by The Pension and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA). They’re only guidelines, but they’re designed to be a good place to start.
Remember: these amounts include your State Pension (which could be up to £9k for each person).
Minimum lifestyle
Single: £10k a year
Couple: £15k a year
Moderate lifestyle
Single: £20k a year
Couple: £30k a year
Comfortable lifestyle
Single: £30k a year
Couple: £45k a year
Step 3: Review your retirement plans
Choosing a target retirement age
Your target retirement age is the age you want to take your pension savings with us. We assume it’s your State Pension age unless you’ve told us something else.
Remember to check the target retirement ages for any other pensions you’ve got (your other pension providers should be able to help) and think about when you may want to take those savings.
Putting in more
The more you save, the more income you’ll have. Are you saving as much as you can afford?
You can pay more money into your pension savings each month to build up more pension savings.
Combining your pensions
Could you combine your pension pots to make them easier to manage?
Transfer other pension pots into your pension savings with us, or out to another pension.
Either way, we don’t charge you to transfer.
Step 4: Review your retirement options
Choosing the right option for your retirement savings is a very important decision. Learn about all your retirement options so you can see which ones might suit you best.
Step 5: Get in touch
Once you’ve decided you want to take your pension savings, contact our member support team or call us on 0330 100 3334 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) and confirm you want to take your retirement savings.
To protect your pension, we’ll ask for your full name, address and National Insurance number.
As long as you’re over 55, we’ll send you a retirement pack setting out the value of your pension savings and the options you have.
Finding help and guidance
Like any other pension provider, we can’t tell you what to do with your pension savings. The following organisations can offer impartial help and guidance:
- Pension Wise (part of the government’s Money and Pensions Service) is a free government service offering guidance about your options for retirement
- The Pensions Advisory Service (also part of the Money and Pensions Service) can help with questions about workplace, State or personal pensions
- Citizens Advice has information about all types of pensions.
Independent financial advice
The organisations we’ve listed so far don’t give independent financial advice – specific advice, tailored to you, recommending what you should do. You can only get this kind of advice from a regulated independent financial adviser. You usually have to pay for independent financial advice and it can seem expensive, but it could be money well spent if it gives you a better retirement and minimises the tax you pay..
- The Money Advice Service (part of the government’s Money and Pensions Service) has information about choosing an independent financial adviser (IFA) and a directory of independent financial advisers that specialise in retirement.
- The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has a What we do for the public section, including a ‘Find an adviser’ directory you can filter to find IFA that specialises in retirement planning.
- The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has a Find an adviser section and a register of financial services firms regulated in the UK. You should check any adviser you’re thinking of using is on this register.
Once you’ve found an adviser, you should also check they:
- are qualified to Level 4 (or above) of the Qualifications and Credit Framework, and
- have an up-to-date Statement of Professional Standing.